The German software giant SAP must pay millions of dollars in interest to its American competitor Oracle, in addition to the $1.3 billion it owes in damages for copyright infringement.
This ruling represents yet another blow to SAP after a court last month found that one of its subsidiaries unlawfully used Oracle’s maintenance software to poach clients. The court decided that SAP must pay interest on the damages amount calculated from the time the copyright infringement occurred in 2005. Oracle demanded payment of about $212 million in interest, but the final amount that SAP will have to pay according to the ruling is only $16.5 million. Additionally, SAP must pay Oracle $120 million in legal fees."Although we believe that Oracle is only entitled to the amount of damages, we appreciate that the court accepted a fair calculation of interest in this case, which drastically reduced the final amount," SAP stated in a press release. SAP announced last week that it would appeal the damages ruling, calling it excessive. (H)
